Before I start the counselling process with a newly diagnosed patient, I usually ask them what their current understanding of a specific condition or procedure is. In the context of glaucoma, the answer is usually either “high pressure” or “it causes blindness”.

There is so much more to glaucoma. Yes, it CAN cause blindness, but doesn’t have to. Yes, the intra-ocular pressure is often high, but not always. I recently wrote a post for Sandhurst Eye Centre‘s Facebook Page on some of the advances in glaucoma surgery, and in it I mention useful posts by my colleagues on the same page. Have a look, and see our other recent social media posts as well.

CATARACTS – Globally still the leading cause of blindness despite being fully treatable. In fact, cataracts are preferably treated when they are not too hard and haven’t yet caused total blindness. Contrary to what I’m commonly asked, a cataract isn’t something that grows in or on top of the eye. Rather, it is the eye’s own natural lens that becomes opaque. These opacities are caused by damage to the lens’s crystalline fibers due to aging, metabolic disorders, trauma, etc. Our latest social media feeds focus on some general info and updates related to cataracts. Have a look!

AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION (AMD) is a major cause of permanent vision loss, affecting the central vision of millions of elderly people worldwide. Despite remarkable advances in recent decades with regards to not only our understanding of the disease process, but also our ability to slow some of the devastating effects thereof, the search is still on for ways to truly halt the progression of AMD and hopefully even reverse it. For more on this, check out some of the most recent links in our social media posts.

GLAUCOMA is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world (Quigley, 2006). An interesting case comes to mind where a patient presented with high eye pressures and cavernous damage to his optic nerve, both typical of glaucoma. Was this patient genetically destined to develop this problem, or could it have had something to do with the steroid nasal spray that’s been used chronically? This week’s social media posts and reposts focuses on various aspects of the disorder, including the roles of diet and medical steroids.